“The AFP and the PNP are already on full alert because the insurgents may continue with skirmishes in the countryside”
Santa Banana, here we go again with the “Iwas putok” campaign by the Department of Health.
But, at the same time, the DOH is alerting hospitals to get ready for the influx of injuries caused by the revelry of New Year’s Eve!
It seems we never learn from the past, with hundreds of injuries caused by banned firecrackers and pyrotechnics.
And still, my gulay, the government continues to protect the pyrotechnics industry based mainly in Bocaue, Bulacan and allows the use of fireworks and pyrotechnics, so long as they are not banned.
Police authorities have been reported regularly inspecting Bocaue’s shops that make firecrackers and other forms of pyrotechnics, to ensure that only authorized firecrackers and pyrotechnics are sold.
And yet, Santa Banana, we read reports, as early as last week, that banned firecrackers and pyrotechnics are being discovered in the market.
How naive can the government get when every year banned firecrackers, like “sawa” and “judas belt,” find their way into the market.
The truth of the matter is that banned firecrackers and deadly pyrotechnics are imported from China or manufactured in Bocaue.
Smuggling is a way of life at Customs.
Santa Banana, if shabu, cocaine and ecstasy find their way into the market, so with all kinds of contraband. Contraband means big money for smugglers and corrupt Customs people!
I am told that with the right contacts, all those banned firecrackers can be bought from those shops peddling firecrackers and all forms of pyrotechnics. They are also available reportedly in Baclaran and Divisoria.
Firecrackers are a hangover from the Chinese peddlers to ward off evil spirits.
Ironically, in Hong Kong and Singapore, firecrackers are banned.
I know this, since before the COVID-19 pandemic days, my wife and I frequented Hong Kong and Singapore during the Christmas and New Year holidays and I know full well that firecrackers are banned in these two Chinese cities.
My wife and I were there during several New Year’s Eve celebrations and these cities celebrated with fantastic displays of pyrotechnics at their bays.
But, here in the Philippines, we revel with deadly firecrackers and pyrotechnics.
And yet, amid cries for a total ban on fireworks and pyrotechnics, the government would rather protect their Bocaue shops, despite the incidence of hundreds of people, mostly young, who get rushed to the hospital during New Year’s Eve for injuries.
Every year, there are also reports of deaths caused by fireworks.
Santa Banana, as I said, we never learn.
Mister President, just ban all those deadly firecrackers and pyrotechnics and issue an executive order to all Local Government Units to set aside a place where people can enjoy the display of pyrotechnics as they do in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Mister President, this total ban can also stop all the smuggling, my gulay !
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The death of Joma Sison at Utrecht, in the Netherlands, is both good and bad for the Philippines insofar as the over-a-half century subversion, the longest ever rebellion in a country, is concerned. .
Joma’s death is good because it opens peace talks, Santa Banana, with the Communist Party of the Philippines.
I’m sure that there are many subversives who would want to end the rebellion as seen by the continuous surrender of members of the New People’s Army.
It is also bad because now members of the CCP will be jockeying for the place of Joma, who was the founder of the Maoist type of subversion in the Philippines.
The CCP in fact is no longer a monolithic organization, with some radicals doing their own thing and with others turning into plain bandits, collecting their “revolutionary taxes.”
I have it from some good sources which have an insight into how the Communist Party of the Philippines works that there are leaders of the NPA now jockeying for the position of Joma.
The worst that can happen for the country is the possibility that a war-freak becomes head of the CCP, like Pol Pot of Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, which will mean more violence and bloodshed, adding to the more than 50,000 that had been killed on the side of the military and police.
There have also been some purges among the NPAs themselves. Santa Banana; let’s hope and pray this will not happen.
What the government should do now is to continue its fight against the subversives, whose numbers are now dwindling, with an estimated number of only 2,112 .
On December 26, the Communist Party of the Philippines will mark its more than half-a-century of fighting the government.
We must not forget that when then President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared on Sept. 21, 1972 the much hated Martial Law, he did it in the wake of two insurgencies — the communist insurgency founded by Sison and the Muslim insurgency in Mindanao founded by Nur Misuari.
Were it not for Martial Law in the 70s, which had followers in Parliament itself, media, civil society and even in academe and the church, and with the continuous landing of high powered weapons from China, the CPP would have taken over the country.
I recall that after the State-of-the-Nation Address for that year, the insurgents which surrounded the Legislative Building (now called the National Museum) threw a dummy coffin at FEM as he, going down the stair flights fenced in by close-in presidential security and barong-clad mayors of the Ilocos Region, left the building before he was driven off to Malacanang, a little over one kilometer away, by then Mayor of Pinili, Ilocos Norte Ireneo Rubio.
I was there to witness it.
This event was one of the causes why Martial Law was declared.
Another event that we should not forget is the bombing of the opposition Liberal Party meeting at Plaza Miranda where most of the LP stalwarts were seriously injured.
Because of the absence of Senator Ninoy Aquino in that event, he was among the suspects because of his attachment with the NPA commander Bernabe Buscayno, also known then as Kumander Dante.
Lately, communist guerilla forces detonated landmines in Samar, an act which is internationally prohibited, killing soldiers who were acting as security at a water project system.
The CPP with its military arm, the New People’s Army, had been declared by many countries as terrorists.
With the death of Joma Sison, his multiple crimes had been buried with him.
Now, the communists came out with a declaration that for the holidays they will not observe the usual ceasefire.
The AFP also declared that it will continue with campaigns to fight the insurgents.
Tit for tat. Santa Banana!
The AFP and the PNP are already on full alert because the insurgents may continue with skirmishes in the countryside.
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I have been told by inside sources that the leftists and the activists are urging the government to allow the return of the remains of Joma Sison to the Philippines.
I say, Mister President, do not allow this to happen because the communists and the leftists will make Joma Sison their martyr and hero.
I will not be surprised that if the remains of Joma Sison will be returned to the Philippines, they will build a pantheon for him, Santa Banana!
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I take this opportunity, two days before Christmas Day, to greet all my readers a very Blessed and Merry Christmas!
And to those who remembered me, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! God bless us one and all.